This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

It is open season on Raptors personnel and it’s impossible to tell how far and deep the cuts will go.

Front office personnel are out, scouts are out, assistant coaches may be out and the week ahead could be a sea-changing period in the franchise’s history.

New general manager Masai Ujiri, not yet formally on the job, has begun to wield a scythe provided to him by incoming Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment CEO Tim Leiweke, slashing a vast majority of a front office assembled and kept by team president Bryan Colangelo.

Executive vice-president Ed Stefanski is out, vice-president of college scouting Marc Eversley’s future is at best clouded and bleak according to some sources while the team’s professional and regional scouting department is now barren.

Stefanski, not 18 months on the job in Toronto after a long career as the GM of the New Jersey Nets (he made the Vince Carter trade with Toronto) and Philadelphia 76ers, was let go with a year left on his contract.

Article Continued Below

“Not a big surprise, I’m sorry things didn’t work out,” said Stefanski. “It’s the business. What are you going to do?”

League sources say the Raptors have already conducted initial interviews with assistant coach hopefuls Nick Nurse of the Rio Grande Vipers of the D League, former Raptor and current Brooklyn assistant Popeye Jones and ex-NBAer Tyronn Lue. Whether those three have to be re-interviewed once Ujiri is on the job full-time remains to be seen but the future of the current staff is cloudier than it’s ever been. None have contracts guaranteed past the end of June and it’s expected none will be in town this week when some players come back for workout sessions with members of the team’s training staff.

The emergence of those names as possible replacements to a staff including Johnny Davis, Scott Roth, Tom Sterner and Micah Nori is not news, the fact they’ve already spoken to members of the Raptors front office would suggest significant change to Dwane Casey’s staff is at hand. Team sources said weeks ago that seeking permission to interview potential new assistant coaches was simply a due diligence process; the desire now for change with a new general manager in place has been hastened.

Casey, according to league sources, has already spoken at length with Ujiri and Leiweke and would seem safe from any purge. He has a year left on his contract.

If there is more sweeping change, the process will unfold midweek. Ujirii, who formally accepted Toronto’s offer on a five-year deal worth a reported $15 million (U.S.) on Friday, is expected to be formally introduced in Toronto on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Leiweke will hold meetings with MLSE staff on Monday, his first official day on the job.

Leiweke, when he first moved Colangelo out of the GM’s role, said he would let whoever he hired have the final decision on personnel matters, on the roster, the coaching staff and in the front office. But he made it no secret that he expected some significant improvement quickly.

But there is no doubt among NBA insiders that Ujiri has been given the mandate by his boss to make sweeping changes to a team that’s now missed the playoffs for five straight springs, the longest post-season drought in franchise history.

Also gone in the Stefanski purge are long-time scout Jim Kelly, pro scouting director, vice-president of pro scouting Dave Pendergraft and two regional scouts. One source also said Maurizio Gherardini, who has been working on a yearly contract as the team’s face in Europe, will also be gone after the weekend housecleaning.

The fate of former Raptor Alvin Williams, who moved from the front office to a scouting role last season, is undetermined.

Aside from Kelly, who first joined the organization under Isiah Thomas before the team had even held its first training camp, all the men let go on the weekend were hired during the seven-year Colangelo era.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com